THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE PLANTS. 163 



The pine-trees, belonging to two families (Pinaceae and Taxaceae), 

 conclude the seed-plants, and differ from all treated of above in that 

 the ovules are naked and not enclosed in a closed chamber (ovary). 

 The most curious of our taxads is PhijUocladus, whose "leaves' are 

 really flattened stems, which in appearance exactly resemble leaves. 

 True leaves, however, are to be seen on seedling plants. 



THE LOWER PLANTS. 



The seed-plants do not by any means comprise the whole of the 

 New Zealand flora. There are, for example, more than a hundred 

 and fifty species of ferns and their allies, including one genus, Loxsoma, 

 peculiar to New Zealand. 



Ferns differ greatly in their form and the texture of their leaves. 

 Some possess two different kinds of leaves namely, those which bear 

 spores and those which do not, the latter having generally a larger 

 area of surface. The genus Blechnum is especially distinguished by 

 its two forms of leaves. Generally the leaf-surface is more or less 

 vertical ; but in Gleichenia it is horizontal, whence the species of that 

 genus get the name of ''umbrella-ferns' 1 (fig. 66). To the genera 

 H ymenophyUum and Trichomanes belong the beautiful filmy ferns. 

 The leaves of these ferns are generally much divided, but those of the 

 kidney-fern (Trichomanes reniforme) are entiie. This fern, notwith- 

 standing its thin leaves,* often grows in remarkably dry stations, as on 

 Rangitoto Island, near Auckland City. 



The mosses and liverworts embrace hundreds of species living 

 under all kinds of conditions, and varying in size from the giant 

 Dawsonia superba, 2 ft. or more tall, to tiny species of liverworts 

 (Frulania, &c.) clinging to the bark of trees. Very interesting is the 

 way in which both mosses and liverworts build up great cushions in 

 stations where the air is almost constantly saturated with moisture. 

 In the forests of Stewart Island, but chiefly in the south and west, the 



*/ 



cushions look just like moss-covered boulders (fig. 67). f 



Low down in the scale of plant-life come those most wonderful 

 plants, the fungi, whose life-histories are as marvellous as any fairy 

 tale, and of which little or nothing was known fifty years ago. Now 



* It has thicker leaves than the other filmy ferns. 



"|" Moss-cushions are frequent in the subalpine zone on the west of the South 

 Island. On Mount Rochfort. near Westport, the moss-cushions are magnificent 



